Your Article Selection
A market study of colour printers
The printer manufacturing market seems to be a booming one.
Manufacturers are no doubt eyeing expansion and coming up with
newer products to capture the burgeoning market. The
manufacturers are interested in the colour -printer sector for
purely reasons of expansion. There is stiff competition between
the makers as all are concentrating to keep the prices low to
capture the market. It must be said here that while in the
monochrome department Hewlett-Packard co. are the market
leaders, the reigning company in the colour segment still
remains undecided.
However the future of the colour printer market is purported to
be a bright one according to those investing in these companies.
The investors are much optimistic, as these printers, using four
times the toner cyan, magenta, yellow, and black of a monochrome
printer, will produce pictures of a much higher quality. The
market, currently a billion dollar industry, will increase
manifold. Adding on to its product range, printing giant Lexmark
introduced its c52x series, which included the c524n last June.
Earlier there was a huge gap in its colour line up-there was
simply the low- end c510 with a capacity of printing about 8
colour and 30 monochrome pictures in a single minute which
wasn't all that fast. There also existed, side-by-side, the
high-end c762 which, though having a higher speed, was much more
expensive, thereby difficult to afford for the smaller offices
and home users. As there was no other product catering to the
demands of the users the competitors of Lexmark had an edge over
it. The introduction of Lexmark's c524n however changed things.
They introduced this product with a very low price range,
thereby making it affordable. Offering a dpi resolution of
1200*1200, this network ready colour laser printer has an
outstanding colour output and can print up to twenty pages per
minute. The very first page may be printed in as little as
13seconds. The model has a monthly maximum duty cycle of 65000
pages, which is quite impressive. The new c524 also reduces the
time taken by print jobs considerably as it has a 437.5MHz
processor and 128Mbytes of memory. The memory can be expanded up
to 576, which decreases the waiting time taken for print jobs.
Moreover, colour care technology and Lexmark coverage estimator
help in managing the cost involved in using colour toner. The
model, weighing 57 pounds, is 17.3 inches wide, 19 inches high
and 20.2 deep. With the model also comes a CD consisting of the
user guide and the printer software, a power cable, a paper exit
extension tray, set up sheet and toner cartridges for cyan,
yellow, magenta and black. The product has a one-year warranty
period for on site repair. It goes without saying that that
outsourcing of IT and consumer electronic products lower
manufacturing costs of the product, which helps lower the prices
of the produced good. The question is how low must the producers
keep their profit margins in order to stay in the race in
today's colour printing market? The current analysis lab
examined the c524n at a product volume of 1,20,000 units under
the assumption that the model was produced in china. An analysis
was made of the procurement costs of commodity components,
manufacturing costs of fabricated components and location labour
rates. The production cost was estimated to be around £265 /
unit. The cost distribution showed the cost of the printer
mechanism and its assembly to be about £51. The electronics and
assembly account for £60. Other costs included laser power
supply, consumables assembly, fuser assembly, paper assembly,
control panel assembly electronics assembly, final arrangements,
etc. At the time of launching the product, the product was
supposed to be priced at £390. However, Lexmark priced the
product at almost half of the originally intended price at some
places. To maximize its revenue, the company in a clever move,
outfitted the toner with different toner cartridges. The toner
content was increased or decreased according to the budget of
the customer. The more expensive models containing more toner
catered to the demands of the enterprise segment while the lower
priced models with low yield cartridges were ideal for small
offices and also home users. The product, being suitably priced,
was a great success, perfectly fitted to meet the needs of the
buyers and the manufacturers and compete with its competitors in
the lucrative colour printer market. Lexmark claimed the print
quality was Photorealistic. On account of its chemically
processed, spherical toner delivering a 1200*1200 dpi resolution
and also because the new print head four lasers in one unit with
a mirror. The machine enabled Lexmark to take on the enterprise
market as well as their competitors, especially Hewlett-Packard.
About the author:
John Sollars is the managing director of Solar Electronics,
suppliers of inkjet cartridges and pc peripherals based in the
UK. To access a comprehensive online shop of original and
re-manufactured printer inks please visit
http://www.mega-office.co.uk